Burglary
by Chelsea3
Summary: Chapter 2 added! A simple burglary leads Francie to the truth.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Burglary  
  
Author: Chelsea (#47)  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Summary: I love fics about Francie and/or Will finding out about Syd's life, and decided to write one of my own instead of searching all over for another one to read. [that was a pathetic summary!]  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!!!  
  
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Francie lay in the hospital bed, fully aware of the happenings of the past forty-eight hours. For what seemed like the one-billionth time that day, she tried to force her eyes open. She knew that she was there. She'd been listening to her sobs for the past hour, but, for the first time in her life, Francie didn't want to be around Sydney Bristow. She finally succeeded in opening her eyes, and hoped that Sydney had managed to slip out unheard. No such luck.  
  
Sydney was setting in the corner, her head leaned against the back of the chair, hands folded in her lap, and eyes red and puffy. It would have been touching at any other time, but after what had happened, she felt sick; she didn't know whether Sydney's concern was genuine or just a well-practiced lie. Still adjusting to not being able to trust her friend, Francie reflected on the events that had led her to this place.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
There was nothing on TV, there never was at 1:00 a.m., but she was determined to stay up and wait for Sydney. They had planned a girl's night of movies, pizza, and 'girl talk.' If she had to wait until dawn, she would.  
  
The news anchor was talking in monotones, and before long, Francie's eyes began to droop. She fought against her weighted eyelids, but was failing miserably, until the door burst open and an armed man wearing a ski mask, came into the room. She tried to blend into the couch, pulled a blanket up to her eyes, and watched as the man walked around the room, searching through the desk drawers, and then moved to the bedrooms. As she listened to him ransack her room, she picked up the phone and dialed 911. The operator had just picked up when the man walked into the room, saw her on the phone, and shot her.  
  
It was the scariest thing that had ever happened. The smell of gunpowder, the searing pain in her chest, and the echoing roar of the gun, all combined to turn her evening into a living nightmare. She could feel the front of her shirt begin to get sticky from the blood that was seeping from her. She could still hear the man as he continued to search the house, and she heard when the second person entered the room.  
  
Evidently with the door open, the new arrival had been given fair warning, and had managed to slip in unnoticed. Francie was only able to keep her eyes open long enough to see Sydney kick the man's weapon from his hand.  
  
Oddly enough, after her eyes closed, she was still conscious. She could hear everything, but was incapable of movement or sound. She heard the dull smack of fists hitting flesh and the gasps of pain coming from both Sydney and the man, more so from the man. The struggle was over quickly, and Francie was unsure of the victor, until she heard Sydney's strained voice, and wondered how she could have possibly overpowered the armed burglar.  
  
"Francie?" She could hear her footsteps getting closer. "Fran?" She felt Sydney slowly pull the blanket away and heard her start to scream. She wanted to reassure her, and tried as hard as she could, but was not able to. Francie could imagine what she was going through after having to find Danny in much the same way, and was berating herself for letting this happen. She felt Sydney's shaky hand check for her pulse, and heard her sigh of relief. Sydney's hand then pressed down on her wound causing her so much more pain that she would have screamed, had she been able. She then heard her rummaging through something, and soon the beeping of the buttons on her cell phone could be heard. From the awkward pauses, it sounded like the number was an unfamiliar one, which was odd, and it was too long to be 911. Francie was now very confused about her friend's actions.  
  
Once again, the question of her newly discovered ability to fight came up. Where had she learned to do that?  
  
When the beeping stopped Sydney started to talk. "Come on, come on, come on.Vaughn?" Her voice wavered, making her sound like a small child, "I-I'm fine, but Francie--" A sob prevented her from finishing, and she only managed to responded to what the man on the phone had said with a simple, "ok." She then turned the phone off and started rambling about how she couldn't stand to lose anyone else.  
  
Francie had no way of knowing how long they stayed like that, but it must not have been long, because she was still conscious: she figured that the loss of blood would eventually take it's toll. Sydney hadn't moved or stopped crying when a man's deep, concern-filled voice, filled the room. "Syd? Where-oh my gosh! What happened?"  
  
"I-I-someone was here, and Francie," once again a sob cut her off. The man walked over and stood close to the couch, she could only assume that he had made a comforting gesture of some kind because Sydney started to cry harder.  
  
Francie was starting to panic now. Her thoughts were becoming jumbled, and there was a ringing in her ears that was slowly magnifying in volume. She was very aware that she was probably dying while her friend tried to keep her emotions in check.  
  
"Sydney, who was it?" She didn't answer him verbally, but from her shifting wait, it was obvious that she had made some sort of gesture.  
  
She could hear the man wander over to where Sydney and the masked man had fought earlier.  
  
The ringing in her ears was now just as loud as the conversation that was going on in the same room.  
  
"Syd, do you recognize him?"  
  
Sydney's wait shifted again, worsening the pain. "I don't know..."  
  
"Is he SD-6? K-Directorate?"  
  
"Vaughn, I don't know! Just-we have to help her! If I lose her-"  
  
The man rushed over to the couch again. "You won't."  
  
"Vaughn-"  
  
"No, Syd. She'll be all right. We'll get her to the hospital-"  
  
"She can't go to the CIA hospital, SD-6 will find out!"  
  
"We can't take her to an SD-6 hospital either. For all we know, they could have a hit out on you."  
  
"No, I don't think this guy was working for anyone. His gun didn't have a silencer, and his fighting skills were weak. He was probably just a burglar looking-"  
  
The ringing became unbearably loud and, finally, Francie lost consciousness.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sydney's eyes opened and she scrambled from the chair. She started to cry tears of relief and Francie decided that if Sydney wanted to play this game, then she would too. She would pretend that she didn't know about her, but only until she could figure out what exactly was going on with her friend. 


	2. Chapter 2

The fic that I was trying to re-write didn't work out, so here is something completely new. Probably not as good as the first part (I'm not a very good judge of my own stuff), but I tried. Well, here goes.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Francie looked up as the door opened, and Sydney trudged into the house. She looked exhausted: dark circles beneath her eyes and a nasty cut above her eyebrow, which she claimed happened when she fell out of her hotel room bed. Francie didn't buy it for a second. She'd watched her friend sleep many times before, and she rarely moved.  
  
It was still weird, second-guessing Sydney; hearing the words come from her mouth, and wanting desperately to believe them, but refusing herself that pleasure.  
  
Sydney slowly moved to the couch, and sat down gingerly, trying to cover her pained grunt with a sigh.  
  
"Rough trip?" Francie put on the same performance that she had for the past eight years, but it was no longer sincere. She was a good actor, though, almost as good as Sydney, and was able to fake her way through it.  
  
"The worst. Dixon's daughter was sick, so he decided at the last minute that he couldn't come. I had to deal with a room full of sleazy, spoiled, Germans, that couldn't keep their eyes off of me for more that two seconds!"  
  
Now, this, Francie believed. The vehement words were filled with emotion that no person could fake.  
  
"You put them in their place, I hope!" Francie shoved herself up off of the couch, and headed for the kitchen. Keeping up her clueless act, when all she wanted to do was beg for the truth, was more difficult than she remembered. She leaned over the sink and ran cold water over her wrists, trying to keep her mind occupied. Sydney's laughter was the only thing that kept it from working.  
  
"No, I don't think the bank would appreciate me chewing out important clients."  
  
'The bank.' That was all that it took to set Francie off. She slammed the glass, which she had been pretending to wash, onto the counter. Ignoring the shards of broken glass, she spun around and glared at Sydney over the bar. "Stop it."  
  
"What-"  
  
"Just stop!" Had anyone else been in the room, they would've thought that Francie had lost her mind. "I remember everything: the burglar, the fight, the man.I can't stand it anymore!"  
  
Sydney, who had previously jumped up from the couch, collapsed back down, with her had over her mouth. "Francie, no."  
  
As quickly as Francie had exploded, she lost her fire. Sydney was trembling, fighting back tears, and looking utterly pathetic. "Syd, I just want the truth. Why is that so hard?"  
  
"I can't." Those two words were packed with such raw emotion that Francie almost gave up her interrogation. Almost. There were just a few questions that she had to have answers to.  
  
"What's SD-6? That guy that you were with mentioned it; and-" her words were silenced by Sydney's hand.  
  
Sydney's mood swings were just as scary as Francie's. First she was confused, then scared, and now she was determined. For what, she didn't know.  
  
"Fran," her words were no more than a whisper, "we have to go. We have to leave, come on!"  
  
Francie opened her mouth to speak, but an explosion drowned out any sound that might have escaped.  
  
TBC... 


End file.
